“Rocket Man” and the North Korean government...

“Rocket Man” and the North Korean government ... are so loony-tunes in general that today's news of a possible move toward denuclearization is really hard to get excited about.  Their sincerity seems so unlikely.  But if it were for real, it sure would be a wonderful thing.

And, interestingly, a vindication of Trump's approach to the NoKos...

The Ipo saga continues...

The Ipo saga continues...  Ipo was spayed about 10 days ago, but her incision is not healing well.  We've been back to the vet with her three times since the initial spaying.  This morning I took her in for a second surgery.  The vet's going to go through the skin on her belly to expose the sutures in from the spaying in the muscle layer, to make certain there are no issues there (he's not expecting any).  Then he'll remove all the old sutures from her skin, on the theory that she's been having a reaction to those sutures – then he'll close the new incision with staples, because the stainless steel in the staples doesn't provoke any bad reactions.  Poor girl! 

She was all excited when I took her in this morning, though.  First, she loves the staff there (all of whom came over to pet her).  Second, another dog was waiting with us: Bailey, a six month old female German shepherd.  The two of them got along famously.  There was much puppy-bowing and gentle play, entertaining all of us waiting.  She's a happy girl, especially as she has no idea what's about to happen...

It's so hard...

It's so hard ... for me to go through my mom's things.  I don't know exactly why that is, as most of the things I'm going through have no personal meaning for me.  For instance, this morning I sorted through a box full of memorabilia from her grandchildren (my nieces and nephews), letters, and photographs.  The photos are almost entirely of people, only a few of whom I know.  The letters were all from people I don't know.  I'm saving them because almost all of them are thanking my parents for some kindness they bestowed; I'll scan them one of these days so my whole family can see them.  I wouldn't have guessed I'd find this activity so emotionally intense, but ... I do.

A (possibly) cheerful thought...

A (possibly) cheerful thought ... occurred to me this morning.  Maybe Trump's announcement of steel and aluminum tariffs was just a negotiating tactic, trying to win concessions on NAFTA.  Maybe he really doesn't have any intention of implementing them.

Maybe...

Debbie's down again...

Debbie's down again ... but nothing serious this time.  On Thursday afternoon she was in our kitchen with the dogs, let her guard down for just a second, and then took a tumble when two dogs jumped on her from behind.  It was scary for her, though, because it was painful and she was afraid she'd rebroken her left knee (the one that she broke in May 2016).  So off to the emergency room we went...

After living her for four years, I'm not sure why we're still surprised at this ... but we were.  We walked into the ER, Debbie on crutches.  We were checked in immediately by a very friendly (of course) clerk.  We waited for three and a half minutes, and then an ER nurse called us in.  In under five minutes, the ER doctor – cheerful and confident – carefully questioned us about what happened, checked Debbie over, verified that no pain meds were needed, and ordered a set of X-rays.  A bubbly, friendly radiology intern came over to get Debbie less than five minutes later.  The X-ray equipment is state-of-the-art, with all electronic imaging – we were out of there in three minutes.  Back to the ER, where a couple of minutes later the ER doc was back and showing us Debbie's X-rays.  There was no visible bone break; at the very worst she has a hairline crack invisible on the X-ray, and he thought that was unlikely.  The main symptom he had to go on was some very localized pain, which was consistent with an injury to either one particular ligament or (less likely) the meniscus (the cartilage “washer” inside the knee joint).  He asked again about pain meds, we declined, and then we were off with a “If it’s not better in a couple of weeks, see your GP.”  Huge relief for both of us (but especially for Debbie) that there was no bone breakage.

The overall experience at that ER was so different than the (unfortunately many) visits we've made to California ERs.  Friendly, competent, cheerful people.  No long waits.  No giant waiting rooms filled with people who should have gone to a clinic or their GP.  No triage (with no queue, it's not needed!).  Spotless, organized ER rooms.  Top-notch, modern, working equipment in every room.  No feeling that you're actually a resident of an impoverished third-world country.

I've been busy the past couple of days taking care of Debbie and the animals (with some help on the latter from our friend Michelle H.).  She already looks better to me, getting around the house pretty easily on the crutches, and able to put some weight on her left leg without pain.  Hopefully this incident will be behind us very soon...

The hopeless feeling when...

The hopeless feeling when ... your president demonstrates, unambiguously, that he is an idiot.

I can't believe he really decided impose tariffs on imported steel and aluminum.  It's probably the simplest way he could torpedo the economy unilaterally.  Doing so just as his other policy initiatives were bearing positive economic fruit is so stupid I have trouble wrapping my brain around it.  The stock market, I see, is interpreting this the same way I would – the Dow is down over 700 points since yesterday morning.

Sheesh.

The unions are crowing about “their” victory.  That's a sure sign that you've messed up, Donald.

I see that some (possibly unreasonably) hopeful pundits are noting that Trump still has a week or so to change his mind.  Try as I might, I can't feel hopeful about that...

Over the edge...

Over the edge...  Reading the news yesterday about the latest irrational howls for gun control sent me over the edge.  If you want to know how that makes me feel, read this post by Eric Raymond – he says it far better than I ever could. 

If you know me, then you most likely know I'm not a “joiner” – meaning that I rarely even think about joining an organization.  Part of that is a result of being an introvert, but a bigger part is that I just plain don't like most organizations – in the sense that I don't want my membership to represent an endorsement.  Last year I joined AARP, but only with great reluctance, as there are many things about AARP that I don't like at all.  But ... they have the best Medicare supplement plans, according to my trusted health insurance agent, so I set my qualms aside and did it.  Their sticker is not on my car. :)

Yesterday, though, I joined another organization: the NRA.  I'm now a life member.  The NRA does some things, and has some stands, that I think are borderline crazy.  But ... nobody does a better job at defending the second amendment, and that's something I care deeply about.  They're also extremely good with their firearms safety training and range training; very commendable activities that should be supported if you're supporting free access to firearms.

So I joined, hoping my financial support will help the fight in some small way.

I'm now pondering a couple additional steps.

First: for both Debbie and I to get concealed carry permits, and to get a suitable carry weapon for both of us (most likely one of the Glocks).

Second: to acquire an AR-15 and learn how to use it.

I want us to be ready if someone comes for our guns.  If that day arrives, it will likely be another “joining” moment for me.

Bloody Wednesday...

Bloody Wednesday...  That's what it was for us, starting at around 3 pm yesterday afternoon.  We took delivery of a rug for a friend, and the delivery man carried it into the house for us.  Our three puppies (Mako, Cabo, and Ipo) were in their crates in the kitchen, and they went stark raving mad.  It's very exciting for them when a stranger comes into the house.  Ordinarily that sort of commotion just means a bunch of noise and a chaotic feeling.  This time was different, because Ipo had just been spayed a week ago.  She managed to split open her incision, about a half inch of it at the end toward her head.  A week after the surgery you wouldn't expect that to bleed a lot – but this time it did.  Blood wasn't gushing out, but it was flowing steadily and stopped only when I applied pressure through a paper towel.

So Debbie called our vet's office (more on those wonderful people below) while I kept pressure on the wound.  There was blood everywhere – in her crate, on her bedding, and (especially) all over the kitchen floor.  The paper towel I was using to apply pressure was soaked in it, and my hand looked like it was made of blood.  Ipo looked totally unconcerned, other than being curious why her papa was holding her on her back and pressing on her stomach.  She obviously wasn't in any pain  The vet tech who answered the phone at the vet's office got just enough of a description from Debbie to ascertain that this really was something that needed urgent attention, and then gave us the go-ahead to bring her in immediately.  Debbie had the brilliant idea of putting an old washcloth on her belly and holding it in place with an elastic male incontinence strap that we had for Mo'i a few years ago; this worked very well (and impressed the vet a little later :)...

One of the things we love about living here is that our wonderful vets are just 3 minutes (and I mean that literally) up the highway from us.  Their clinic is on the same road we live on, less than three miles north of us.  So about eight minutes after we first noticed the bleeding, we were in the vet's office.  By this time we know most of the people there, both vets and vet techs, on a personal level.  I take them flowers once in a while (just did last week, actually) when we think they need cheering up.  So when we walked in with Ipo in my arms, it was a bit like walking into a friend's house.  At this point the bleeding had slowed down to a seep.  The vet techs got everyone notified right away.  Dr. Clark happened to see us in the lobby, and came over to check Ipo out.  He was obviously unworried (a relief to us) and said he'd see us as soon as he'd finished with the patient he was working on.  A few minutes later, we were in with Dr. Clark and he gave her a quick check before telling us what was going on – and to assure us that there was nothing to worry about. 

It seems that when they do the spay, they actually make two incisions.  The first is through the outer skin layer, the second through the muscle layer that's just inside the skin.  When they're done with the surgery, they make two sets of stitches: one to close the muscle incision the other to close the skin.  Sometimes the dog will accumulate blood and plasma in the area between the muscle and the skin.  That's what happened to Ipo: there was some fluid (probably on the order of a cup's worth) buildup there, and when the skin incision split open, that accumulated fluid started flowing out.  None of this is harmful to the dog.  He made sure she didn't have any sort of infection, then put one staple in the place where the incision had split and sent us home.  That's it!

Phew!!!

The competence and proximity of our vets is a great source of comfort to us.  For many years, when we lived in Jamul, California, we were a 45 minute drive from our vet.  We always worried about what would happen if we needed a vet urgently.  Fortunately for us, that need was never tested, though we did have a few incidents that were rather too close for comfort.  The fact that we like all the staff there is just some very nice icing on the cake...

Things you find when cleaning up...

Things you find when cleaning up...  My office has been a complete disaster ever since my mom died, just over a year and a half ago.  That's because her stuff is strewn everywhere in it, and I've been procrastinating – waiting, really, until it wasn't too awful while going through her things, trying to decide what goes where or to whom.  It's still an emotional roller coaster for me, but at this point I'm not sure it's ever going to get any better.  So I've begun the great office cleanup.

I've just barely started, and already I've found some things that were surprising, and some other things that brought me a nice big smile.

The biggest surprises so far came from skimming through my mom's voluminous medical records – hundreds of X-rays and a couple thousand pages.  Before I shredded these things I wanted to make sure no other papers I'd want to keep were embedded in them (as I have found things I've kept in some very odd places).  This time I haven't yet found any other papers – but I did discover two medical issues my mom had that I had never known about.  The first was from 1998: the detection of a tumor in her brain, 1.5 cm across (so roughly walnut-sized).  I found the X-rays, radiology reports, and a written recommendation from her GP to have surgery, despite it being (as he put it) “quite risky with a relatively high expected mortality”.  So far as I know she never had any such surgery, and I can't imagine how she could have had it in secret – so she must have declined (not all that surprising for her).  The second issue was from 2007, the detection of a lump in her breast and the diagnosis of benign but with a recommendation to have it removed.  Again, I don't know of any such surgery – but that kind of surgery could, I imagine, be done without my ever knowing about it.  On the other hand, it wouldn't surprise me to find out she'd declined that surgery as well!  In any event, neither of these contributed in any way to her death, so if she did decline them, in hindsight it wasn't a bad decision.

In another box I sorted through, there were some of our personal papers.  One of them was a note from November 1990, from the owner of a motel in Trinidad, Colorado.  If you click the little photo at right, you can read it.  She's thanking Debbie and I for some things we left behind for her, her husband, and their dog.  Neither Debbie nor I remember the incident at all, though it does sound like something we'd do.  We remember the trip very well, though: we were taking a friend from San Diego to Colorado for surgery, and then back home.  We stayed in Trinidad for a couple of days waiting for our friend to be ready, and we must have stayed at Hannah's motel.  We have lots of nice memories of that trip, so this brought lots of smiles.

Also in that box was something very meaningful to me, personally.  I've removed identifying information because so far as I know the author of this letter is still around, and I didn't get his permission to use his name.  Friends of mine from the late '90s or early '00s will probably be able to figure it out, though. :)  This is a letter of recommendation written to help me find a job after I fired myself as the CEO of Previo in 2002, because we were winding the company down.  The author knew me better than any other Board member did, so his kind words were something I cherish.  I haven't looked at this letter for over 15 years now, so reading it this morning was almost like reading it for the first time.  I never did use the letter to help find a job, but I did lean on the author a couple of times as a reference.  Both times the prospective employer commented about that reference call being amongst the most positive they'd ever done.  Both times they hired me. :) 

Winter in Paradise...

Winter in Paradise...  I walked outside this morning into sunshine, most welcome after a week or so of being socked in (that's a shot to our southwest taken this morning; as usual click on it to embiggen).  The temperature is hovering around 20°F, though it's supposed to get above freezing today.  We'll see – the weatherman's track record is pretty dismal recently.  I wheeled our garbage can to the highway, as today is pickup day.  I'm surprised every week by just how much garbage we generate; on average that garbage can weighs about 50 pounds.  We're just trashy folks, I guess!  :)  After that I did my morning rounds of the bird feeders.  It's cold, so they're very active.  The whole time I was doing these chores I was looking around at the mountains that surround us – so beautiful this time of year!

I spotted a couple of strange things on our driveway that I cannot as yet explain (see the two photos below).  Those two photos were taken a few feet and a few seconds apart.  They're both on a stretch of driveway with identical exposure to sunshine.  Last night it looks like some meteorological phenomenon sprinkled ice crystals all over the driveway, which then partially melted together to form a rough, thin sheet of ice over the entire thing.  But in these two places (and only these two places), these two blobs appeared.  The one on the left seems to have thicker ice there; my theory is that there was water (from the day's melt) on the driveway that froze solid before whatever it was dropped the ice crystals.  The one on the right seems to have no ice crystals – it's as if they all melted.  One might suspect salt, but I haven't used salt even 100' from there.  I have no other theory at the moment.

As I walked toward our barn, there was a commotion in our back yard.  It seems there were three spaniels who badly wanted my attention.  That handsome fellow staring me down and demanding a scritch is Mako.  Bored with the proceedings is Ipo, the furthest one in the photo.  And curious Cabo is carefully smelling all the vegetation at the bottom of the fence.  Sure doesn't take much to make them happy.  If you need to be loved, and needed, get a dog...

Turning around after taking that photo, I was standing under the flag that my mom made a few years ago.  It's hanging about 12' high, above my barn's big garage door on its east side.  I especially cherish the sight of that flag on mornings like this, lit by the low sun in the east.  Of course it always brings my mom to mind.  Often, as it did this morning, it also gets me to pondering just how much our country's government has changed since that flag was last the official American flag.  And that got me to thinking, once again, how fortunate we are to live in a part of the country where the general feeling is that our freedoms are being eroded and that they must be defended.  So, so different than California...

Just before I went in to start working on cleaning up my office, I took this photo to our northeast.  I stood on our property when I took this, but the field in the photo belongs to our friend and neighbor Tim D.  You can see part of our backyard fence at right.  On the left side are some deer tracks, and on the right a small dog or a fox (the latter is quite likely).  I love these winter scenes, and I especially enjoy trying to figure out what wildlife have visited us by identifying their tracks.  This morning as I took out the trash and fed the birds I was able to spot quite a few: deer (lots!), a large dog, that fox/small dog, several house cats, a muskrat and a weasel (in our irrigation canal), some small rodent (most likely a vole), and I think a raccoon.  There are also, as you might expect, about ten bazillion bird tracks in the snow, especially around our feeders.  I can't identify any of them. :)

The number of curses per minute...

The number of curses per minute ... has declined to its normal level (hear zero) around my office, because I finished doing our 2017 income taxes.  Yesterday the level was quite high. :)  Our taxes were complicated by the sale of my mother's home (and the empty lot next to it) last year.

This is the earliest (in the year) I remember ever getting my taxes done.  Just two days after I received the last bit of tax documentation.  Woo hoo!

Except for the two rather large checks I have to write, I'd be a pretty happy guy right now. 

But I sure wish I had the simple flat tax that my friends in Estonia have...

I just...

I just ... walked back into my office after running some errands.  It's time for me to get back to work on our taxes, not exactly my favorite chore. :)  As I poked the woodstove fire back to life, there was a loud rumbling (and I knew what was coming!) and then an enormous whoompa! as a ton or so of wet snow slid off the second story roof of my barn and down onto the first story.  The entire barn shakes when that happens, including (to my surprise) the concrete floor of the first story.  The trusses are holding, though, much to my relief.  I'm a bit surprised that there aren't visible “dents” in the first story roof from these falls!

Solution implemented!

Solution implemented!  The freezing UPS problem I devised a solution for is now fixed.  Yay!  And I did it exactly the way I had planned.  That hardly ever happens.  :)

The first photo below shows the shelf I installed, with the bottom of it being 10.5 feet above the garage floor.  The hangers that the 2x6s are sitting on were that leftover garage storage kit that I had.  In that first photo, between the two boards and a bit to the left you can see the 4" hole I sawed through the garage ceiling.  There's a matching hole in the second floor's floor.  The second photo shows the UPS all wired up and running.  I'm writing this post on a computer powered by that UPS.  It works!

The primary purpose of this project was to locate the UPS in a space that is temperature controlled – a sort of Goldilocks temperature, neither too hot nor too cold.  The barn's garage suits that bill perfectly.  In the winter it's heated, never getting colder than 65°F.  In the summer the excellent insulation in my barn plus the thermal mass of the 8" thick concrete floor keeps the temperature below 80°F most of the time, and the highest it's ever been is 84°F.  That's well within the UPS's operating temperature range.  My freezing UPS problem should be gone, and hopefully I didn't introduce any new problems while doing that.

There's a secondary benefit though, one that I hadn't even considered.  The UPS has rather loud fans, and now they're running down in the garage where a bit of extra noise will mean nothing (as there are many noisy things down there already).  That means my second floor is now back to it's basically noiseless state: nice and quiet for working, no noise to mess with my music.

Win!

Solution devised...

Solution devised...  A solution for my frozen UPS problem, that is.  Immediately below my UPS's current location is the 12 foot high ceiling in the barn's “garage” (where I keep my tractor, ATV, and some other equipment).  There's no wall anywhere near there.  I remembered that I had one of these ceiling storage kits left over from another project.  After a little investigation, I figured out that this would work very nicely to make a little “under the ceiling” shelf of sorts high above my “garage” floor, well out of the way and safe from anything stupid I might do with the tractor.  Installing that shouldn't be very difficult, other than having to do the work at the top of a tall ladder.  Once that shelf is in place, then all I need is a roughly 4" diameter hole in the ceiling (and floor above) to route the power input and output cables through.  I think the biggest challenge will be simply putting the UPS up there – the thing is a monster; weighs about 60 or 70 pounds.  I have to do some thinking about how to (safely) hoist that thing up there.

So now I have yet another project, this one with a bit of urgency as we have some cold weather in the forecast!

The cat...

The cat ... soon to be formerly known as “Tigger”.  This is the cat we adopted yesterday.  She seems reasonably content with her lot, but definitely not pleased about the presence of all our other cats.  At the moment only two of our other cats can actually come into contact with her, but they can all watch each other ... which they are. :)

Morning, deer...

Morning, deer, and a few other things...  When there was just barely enough light to see this morning, I looked out to our bird feeders to see if they were empty.  I spotted this deer scrounging the seed that birds had kicked off the feeders and not yet cleaned up (eventually they get everything edible).  I couldn't see well enough to tell if it was a buck or a doe – the bucks have lost their antlers by now, so the only way to tell is by getting a good view of their nether regions, or the back of their head (where you can see scars on a buck).  From its behavior (feeding alone), I'd guess this is a buck, but that's just a guess.  This one is being relatively polite and not knocking down my feeder.  Good deer!

The photo looks like broad daylight only because I've manipulated the exposure to make the deer more visible, and corrected the white balance to eliminate the blue twilight cast.  This is actually a good demonstration of the iPhone X's low-light capabilities, stabilizer, and telephoto – this was very low light, long exposure (1/15th), no flash, hand-held, on 2x optical telephoto.  Pretty amazing for something that weighs a few ounces and is the size of a thick postcard...

We got an email from an old friend last night, a woman I worked with through the '90s and up to '02.  She's 70, her husband a little older, and they're just now retiring.  They sold their small farm for cash, only to discover that the buyer was a gang-connected drug and gun dealer.  They went through a series of physical and legal adventures, including flying bullets, when finally this bad actor was arrested, arraigned, agreed to a plea deal for 15 years in federal prison.  Her (long) email reads like a précis of a script for a Hollywood production.  Holy cow!  And this sweet lady is someone who, if you were to meet her, you would think was primarily occupied with crafts and homemade shortbread.  I'm going to reply to her shortly, but right at the moment about the only thing I can think to say is “Holy shit, woman!”

Thursday we dropped off our little Munchkin (the male kitten who fell into our casement window a few months ago) and Ipo (the sweet female field spaniel whose owner didn't want her, and we adopted) at the veterinarian's to be neutered.  We picked them up in the afternoon.  Munchkin was back to his normal self within an hour or so of getting home.  One of the vet techs brought Ipo out to us, and while she was waiting for us to finish the paperwork she sat down in the lobby with Ipo – who was wiggling her butt to beat the band, and just loving all the attention from the vet tech.  I'm not sure she really wanted to go back home with us. :)

Yesterday afternoon we were relaxing at our kitchen table after a very filling meal at La Unica.  Debbie was reading about the animals up for adoption at the Cache Valley Humane Society (she does this almost daily).  She spotted a cat named “Tigger” that reminded us both of our beloved Maine coon Halala Pala, who died of cancer a few years ago.  Then we read the description and discovered that Tigger was 12 years old – and we knew that cats of that age are nearly impossible for organizations like the Humane Society to adopt out.  So we talked it over for a minute and then decided to go get her.  Which we did!  The staff at the Humane Society was delighted that someone came in specifically to get Tigger.  They tested her for FeLV (negative!) and in an amazingly short time we walked out with Tigger in a carrier.  She's now ensconced in her own little queendom carved out of our cattery, where she'll get as much time as she needs to get used to us and the other cats.  We found out that she was an indoor-only cat, the only pet of an elderly lady who has become unable to care for Tigger.  I'll post some photos when she's willing to come out of hiding...

A wintry drive...

A wintry drive...  Our neighbors Gary and Elayne S. own a gigantic 4WD pickup, and yesterday after lunch together we went on a drive around the north side of Porcupine reservoir with them.  It was just stunningly beautiful along the whole drive.  The scene at right is looking west over the reservoir, toward the dam.  We saw some deer, rabbit tracks, some chickadees, and an eagle.  Gary did a few Brodies along the way on the icy road, scaring the bejeezus out of Elayne – and I think he was a bit disappointed that he didn't manage to frighten Debbie. :)

Gary and I took note of the water level in the reservoir: it's only about 10' below full.  I don't think we'll have any problem with a water shortage for irrigation this year, which is great news.

They took us to a new (to us) eatery: Sabores.  It's tucked away off the main drag in Logan, behind the Beehive Grill.  We were both astonished to find another great place to eat in this little town.  Debbie and I have been missing good Thai food, and when we spotted Pad Thai on the menu we both ordered it.  It was excellent!  Debbie ordered dessert, and when they brought it out we were a bit shocked.  It was tres leches (three milks) cake (a common South American dessert), and it was a huge chunk.  Also delicious!  Between the four of us we managed to put it all away.  We'll be back to Sabores – that was a real treat, especially with friends for company...

Well, this I didn't expect!

Well, this I didn't expect!  When I went out to my barn office this morning, I was surprised to find that my iMac Pro was powered down.  After I powered it back up, I noticed that the Ubiqiti WiFi node in my office had also powered down over night, though it came back up on its own.  Then I discovered that my little Mac Server (a Mac Mini) also had powered down and come back up – as had all my networking gear.  It looked exactly as though I'd had a power outage – but I have a (really nice) UPS running all of it.  WTF?

My UPS isn't actually in my office – it's just outside my office, in the storage area part of the second floor of my barn.  That part of my barn is unheated.  Looking the the UPS logs, I discovered an event around 3:30 am this morning: temperature too low, at 9°F.  The thing shut down because it got too cold!  This is a new experience for me – all the temperature problems I remember seeing in electronics was because it was too hot, not too cold.

So now I have a new project: to move my UPS down into the heated part of my barn.  That's just 2 feet below where it is right now. :)  This will mostly involve drilling a couple of holes (for the input and output power) and building a shelf for the UPS, high on the wall of my workshop.  Not a project I was expecting!!

Another titanium artifact...

Another titanium artifact...  This is made by the same folks who made the titanium dice.  This is a key-chain clip, 6 cm (about 2 1/4") long.  It's made from a solid titanium blank, laser-cut.  The jagged-looking cuts form a spring, and it works beautifully.  The angled end prevents the sprung part from moving outward, and the force to move it inward is perfect, a few ounces.  Once again, I marvel that it's possible for an ordinary person to buy something like this...

Scenes from winter in Paradise...

Scenes from winter in Paradise...  By request, at right is my snow plowing rig: my Kubota B26 with a 400 lb. weight on the back and the hydraulic tilt blade in front.  I had it out again this morning, scraping off the two new inches that fell last night.  The forecast for last night? Zero inches.  It's still snowing intermittently this morning; it won't surprise me a bit if I need to go out again later today.

After I get back from my visit to the dentist. :(  Just a routine cleaning, but still ... not my favorite activity.

I took this yesterday to give you an idea just how much snow we got.  That trash can has the salt we use to keep our sidewalk and porch free of ice.  It sits under the stand of pine trees in our front yard – and it still accumulated that much snow!

When I went out this morning to fill our bird feeders, several species went right on feeding despite my presence: chickadees, juncos, house finches, and goldfinches.  I take that as a sign of hunger.  Our nearby honey locust had a swarm of birds perching in it: magpies, pigeons, grackles, and about a dozen red-winged blackbirds.  As soon as I left the area of the feeders, those red-winged blackbirds flew down in a group and started browsing on the cracked corn I'd scattered, as well as picking through the sunflower seeds smaller birds had pulled out of the feeders.  I sure hope they're ok through this snow and cold – they look very much out of place.

Yesterday afternoon we took a drive up Blacksmith Fork Canyon to Hardware Ranch.  For me, the scenes of snow-on-rock were quite beautiful (below).  But darned near everything on that drive was beautiful: the stream, the contrast of red osier dogwood against the snow, the snow in the trees, and the broad vistas of snowy mountains.  Up near Hardware Ranch we saw several groups of deer, including one with about 40 members.  We also saw a few isolated deer, most likely bucks who have lost their antlers.  At Hardware Ranch itself there were hundreds of elk, picking through the night's snowfall to get to the hay beneath...